Thursday, July 12, 2018

Spotify is worth more than $33bn, as stock price hits another all-time high | Music Business Worldwide

It’s been just over three months since Spotify floated on the New York Stock Exchange.

The story of the company’s valuation since that fateful day (April 3) has, so far, been one of a consistent climb.

So much so that today (July 12), Spotify’s share price is at an all-time high, pushing the company’s market cap value comfortably above $33bn.

According to Google Finance, Spotify’s current share price (as we hit publish on this story, with an hour to go until the NYSE bell) stands at $188.19, resulting in a market cap of $33.34bn. (See graph below.)

How far the company has come: this share price is no less than 42.6% higher than Spotify’s opening reference price on April 3 ($132) and 26.3% higher than its price at the close of its first day ($149.01).

As for Spotify’s valuation, check this out: compared to its market cap at close of its first day on the NYSE (April 3, $26.5bn), the public worth of Daniel Ek’s company has grown by approximately seven billion dollars.

The reasons for Spotify’s most recent share price bump are myriad, but music investor confidence certainly won’t have been hurt by the news that both speaker company SONOS and Chinese Spotify rival Tencent Music Entertainment (TME) are set to IPO on the US stock exchange.

(Spotify investors will particularly like the fact that Spotify owns approximately 9% in TME, of course; at the Chinese firm’s expected post-float valuation of $30bn, this stake will be worth close to $3bn.)

Elsewhere, UK-based music rights acquisition vehicle Hipgnosis Songs Fund Limited (HSFL) this week successfully floated on the London Stock Exchange, having raised over £200m ($260m) with which to buy copyrights.